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Cranberry Township takes delivery of two new ambulances

A Cranberry Township EMS ambulance sits outside Cranberry Township Community Waterpark last summer. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

In a moment the department has waited two and a half years for, Cranberry Township EMS will take delivery of two new ambulances on Tuesday, Jan. 21, to refresh its fleet of emergency vehicles.

According to Matt Nickl, executive director of the CTEMS, the two ambulances from the company Medix, based in Elkhart, Indiana, were originally ordered in June of 2022. They were originally scheduled to arrive in 2023 or 2024 before manufacturing delays pushed back the delivery date.

“The manufacturing delays were caused by COVID,” Nickl said. “We had to switch manufacturers at the beginning of 2024 because of the delays. These delays have caused increased maintenance costs due to equipment retention.”

Cranberry Township EMS has a fleet of five ambulances. That number will not change after the new vehicles arrive, as they will be replacing two older ambulances. Another new ambulance is on order and is expected to arrive by the end of 2026, which will replace another older vehicle.

The new ambulances will be outfitted with automatic-loading stretchers at a cost of $70,000 each. The stretchers are designed to simplify the process of loading and transporting a patient. Nickl says they will be outfitted on all new ambulances purchased by CTEMS.

“After these two, we’ll only have one ambulance that doesn’t have one,” Nickl said. “We’ll replace that unit in 2026.”

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